The present invention relates to an improved seaming method and apparatus for gored panty-hoses, and more particularly relates to improvement in manufacturing of panty-hoses of a type in which a gore or crotch piece is attached to the thigh portion of a panty-hose.
There is lately a remarkable penetration of panty-hoses into the market of apparels and same are welcomed by many users from the viewpoint of functionability and beauty culture, the panty-hose being made up of a panty portion and a pair of stocking portions formed in one body to each other.
One typical example of the technique for manufacturing such a panty-hose is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,681, in which a pair of tubular stocking materials are seamed together on an automatic apparatus in order to form a panty portion in one body with a pair of stocking portions. Since use of the so-known gore is omitted, this type of panty-hose is in general called as a goreless panty-hose. Despite absence of the gore, relatively large stretchability of the material used for the goreless panty-hose assures appreciable fitness to the body of the user. Thanks to omission of the gore, seaming of the thigh portion of the panty-hose can be quite easily and automatically carried out on a sewing machine.
Despite the rather appreciable fitness to a user's body and easiness in manufacturing, the goreless panty-hose cannot still beautifully meet delicately variating requirements and preferences of consumers of panty-hoses in general. For these reasons, there looms lately a trend to revaluate the delicate fitness of the gored panty-hose to the user's body in spite of its relatively complicated manufacturing process.
Conventional manufacturing of such a gored panty-hose is practiced by highly skilled manual operation since attachment of the gore to the thigh portion of the panty-hose requires complicated seaming procedures. When compared with the goreless panty-hoses, manufacturing of the gored panty-hoses is considerably low in process efficiency and requires greatly increased manual labour, thereby leading to increased manufacturing costs.